UMD entered its series at Western Michigan on Jan. 31 in sixth place in the standings. The Bulldogs swept the Broncos and then took five of six points from a series with Colorado College this past weekend to move into second place in the standings this week.

Broncos coach Andy Murray said he expects a tight race the rest of the way for all of the NCHC teams.

“It’s a tight league,” Murray said. “It’s great players, great coaches and certainly makes for an exciting finish to the league. We’ve got eight games left. At this point, we can win them all or we can lose them all.”

Western Michigan travels to Colorado Springs, Colo. Friday and Saturday for a series against Colorado College, which sits in last place in the NCHC with a 3-9-4 league record and 3-18-5 overall mark.

Murray suggested that he’s tried to keep his team oblivious to the league standings and keep them focused on each week’s opponent.

“I don’t know if they really know the standings,” he said. “We’ve got a group that just focuses on the next game we’re playing and I think that’s what we’ve tried to do here. The only time we talk about the standings is sometimes I’ll put them on the board on Monday and then I’ll rub them off after practice because it doesn’t really matter. You’re just focusing on the team you’re going to play on the weekend.

“This week it happens to be Colorado College, who had a great weekend in terms of play up at Minnesota-Duluth.”

Friday’s game is set to begin at 9:30 p.m. (EST) and Saturday’s will be played at 9 p.m.